Automatic test equipment for the testing and measuring of electronic signals and electronic video signals is known. The capability of video test instrumentation is mainly limited to single video types with single functions such as composite video generators or composite video acquisition instruments. Many different video technologies have proliferated in military applications in order to fulfill requirements for complex situational displays with demanding image intensities, and image update rate specifications. Common video display technologies include composite video, raster video, and stroke video, and combinations of these are typically called mixed video.
These technologies are deployed on mobile platforms, such as aircraft and tanks. Within each platform, there are two primary components of the video system, namely, the video generator and the video receiver/monitor. Correspondingly, the equipment tasked with testing a video system must supply the complementary component to the component under test. If a video generator is being analyzed, its video signals need to be captured, analyzed and possibly reviewed by the test operator (the functions usually performed by the video receiver/monitor). Conversely, if a video receiver/monitor is being analyzed, proper video signals need to be generated in order to produce an image on the display (the function usually performed by the video generator).
While there is an ongoing technological shift to remove the operator out of the testing loop by enabling more software-driven automatic measurements, there are instances where automatic measurements are not feasible or possible. In video testing, a legacy method of performing video image validation is to externally connect the video generator under test to the actual system video monitor and task the operator with manually inspecting the displayed image and make a visual pass/fail determination. The physical realities of this requirement are that there are additional demands imposed to store and maintain large, heavy, system-specific, video monitors. Furthermore, as systems age and are no longer produced, monitor replacements are simply not available.
A general system supporting the testing of the spectrum of video formats has many requirements. When fulfilled by single purpose modules, the equipment and methods necessary to fulfill these requirements become onerous and inefficient. Therefore, the inventors have recognized that there exists a need for a single device to supply the functions and methods for military video testing, including video generation, video capture and video redisplay. Such a device will ideally produce significant measurable economic and time savings.